FROM: Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/9999429.htm?1c
Posted on Sun, Oct. 24, 2004

 Global action sought by U.S. against cloning

Proposed U.N. ban includes embryonic stem cell research

By MAGGIE FARLEY Los Angeles Times


UNITED NATIONS — The Bush administration is leading a campaign at the
United Nations for a global treaty banning embryonic stem cell research
and all forms of human cloning.

Critics fear that the United States' move to create a U.N. treaty for a
universal ban might undermine efforts to find cures for such afflictions
as cancer, diabetes and spinal cord damage.

While all countries at the United Nations oppose cloning to create a
human being, the international body is starkly divided on whether to ban
cloning of human embryos for stem cell studies or other medical research,
known as therapeutic cloning.

The United States, Costa Rica and 59 other mostly small nations with
strong Catholic or Muslim majorities contend that medical research
involving cloning results in the taking of human life. Their draft to ban
all human cloning, which was the subject of debate before a General
Assembly committee last week, terms it “unethical and morally
reproachable.”

Nearly 130 nations, including close U.S. allies such as Britain, Japan
and India, say that each nation should be allowed to decide for itself
whether to regulate therapeutic cloning.

“No country has the right to seek to impose on the rest of the world a
ban on therapeutic cloning, when its own legislature won't impose the ban
nationally,” said British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry.

Jones Parry noted that therapeutic cloning uses technology similar to in
vitro fertilization, which has helped people create families. Unused
embryos can be donated to science instead of being destroyed, and stem
cell banks can be established to reduce the need for the creation of new
lines, he said.

Roberto Tovar, Costa Rica's minister of foreign affairs and worship,
countered Thursday that “cloning reduces the human being to a mere object
of industrial production and manipulation.” He warned that women could be
exploited as egg-making “factories,” and that the international community
must not allow human embryos to be destroyed for scientific experiments.

The United Nations in 2001 began considering a global convention banning
human cloning, but it has twice delayed a vote because the issue of stem
cell research has been so emotional and divisive.

The controversy touches on philosophical and religious issues, involving
arguments that can be highly technical as well as passionate and
personal. Discussions center on when human life actually begins and
whether it is ethical to sacrifice the life embodied in a bundle of
undifferentiated cells less than 15 days old to pursue a cure for a
living person.

President Bush has allowed limited federal funding for studies using a
few dozen existing stem cell lines but has prohibited the use of federal
money for the creation of any new lines that would involve destruction of
human embryos. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly this year, Bush
declared: “No human life should ever be produced or destroyed for the
benefit of another.”

The Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, backs the
aggressive pursuit of stem cell research. On Thursday, Kerry received the
endorsement of the widow of actor Christopher Reeves, who said the
research could lead to a cure for the spinal cord damage Reeves suffered.

A convention against human cloning, if eventually adopted by the General
Assembly, would not be legally binding and would only be considered as
the world consensus on cloning practices.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

First glance

• The United States is promoting a global treaty banning embryonic stem
cell research and all forms of human cloning.

• The proposal was the subject of debate before a United Nations General
Assembly committee last week.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn